Unhinged Society

SAVVY (16) thought that the day of her 16th birthday would bring her first kiss, parties of epic proportions, and maybe the lead in her high school’s musical. She never expected that it would be the start of her career as a rebel leader. Although there had been rumors swirling around that the US government was rounding up women all over the country to “save future generations,” it had seemed far away from Savvy and her small California beach town. But on the morning of her birthday, during an especially important dress rehearsal, unmarked agents begin kidnapping girls and women in her school and neighborhood. Savvy’s sister calls her desperately and warns her to run somewhere she will not be found. The call abruptly cuts off.

Alone and afraid, Savvy decides to hide out in the wild mountains of Big Sur at her secret camping spot. After spending a few hungry nights in the eucalyptus grove by her campsite, she stumbles upon two tough older women foraging for berries. NORA (70) and DONNA (65), lesbians living off the land, offer her dinner after realizing she is alone. Over the next few days, the women gruffly begin to teach her to survive in the wilderness and reveal that although the government passed through the nearest town, it did not kidnap any woman over the age of 45 or unable to get pregnant. As Savvy becomes desperate to rescue her sister, she reveals to Donna and Nora that she plans to drive to DC and save her from the “population camps” touted by the government as the perfect societal solution for falling birth rates. Though the women are initially hesitant to help her, they grab their rifles and insist on accompanying her to storm the camp. As they roadtrip from California to DC, the women encounter terrified men and women. Though some immediately threaten to call the government helpline set up for civilians to report any “defiant women,” others hide them and offer food and money. A retired veteran provides them with a map of the population camp.

In the middle of the night, after disabling the security system, they drug the guards and sneak into the camp. However, upon arriving at the 15 and under girls' dormitory, though Savvy’s sister is desperate to be free, the rest of the girls, some already pregnant, refuse to leave and begin militaristically chanting propaganda. After they successfully save Savvy’s sister, they drive back to Big Sur to hide out. When word spreads about their encampment in the woods, other dissenters soon begin to join them, forming a makeshift society of overlooked older women, escaped young women, and male dissidents. The group begins to discuss the possibility of a full-on rebellion. However, it seems like the enemy forces already know about every move they make. Savvy is sometimes unnerved by her sister’s tendency to mutter state propaganda while asleep, and she begins to suspect her little sister may have stronger ties to the leaders in the population camp than she has let on. A la The Handmaid's Tale and The Hunger Games, in UNHINGED SOCIETY, a teenage theatre nerd and two older women launch a rebellion to dismantle the entire US government – there’s only the question of her sister’s loyalty, her own survival, and that of the future of all women.